Does anyone know if there are guidelines regarding tubing hangtime for IVF infusing through a warmer? The question arose regarding bacterial growth and should the tubing be changed more frequently than our standard 96 hours. The solution is a standard D5.
There is nothing specific to hangtime for IVF in the INS Standards of Practice.
Even the CDC guidelines state that hang time for regular IV fluids is an unresolved issue. For many years, the standard was 24 hours but this was due to an outbreak of infection in the 1970's and was determined to be caused by the type of top on IV bottles. This type is no longer used. INS standards at present still state 24 hours and give paramaters for going beyond 24 hours in Standard 68. However neither CDC nor INS have included hang time for warmed fluids that I have ever seen in my 40 years of infusion nursing. With warmed fluids, the biggest risk is how they are warmed. It must be in a device designed for warming infusion fluids, not a microwave, hot water, etc. I would stick to the 24 hours for all fluids since the sets have injection ports and we are opening and closing the system on both ends. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
Lyn, My understanding of standard 68 is that it's referring to solution/meds, not to IV tubing. Standard 48 refers to administration set change and 48.1 states primary and secondary continuous administration sets shall be changed no more frequently than every 72 hours and immediately upon suspected contamination or when the integrity of the product or system has been compromised. It then follows with various practice criteria which leads to more frequent set changes. Were you by chance confusing these two standards? Please clarify. Thanks.
Barbara
No, I am not confused on the standards. I was responding to the issue of hang time for all IV fluid containers, which was the last part of the original question. You are correct about the statements for tubing changes, but the fluid container is different from the tubing. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
I apologize for not being more specific. We would change the solution every 24 hours. I was questioning the tubing hangtime. It sounds like 96 hours would be okay as long as it was continuously attached (which is our hospitals standard).
Yes, 96 hours is acceptable. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861